Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System and has a mass 2.5 times that of all other planets. Most people will remember that Jupiter is composed mostly of helium and hydrogen. But unlike most other gas giants, there is a significant presence of metals in the planet’s composition. Scientists have finally managed to determine where this metal originated in Jupiter – the other terrestrial planets that Jupiter consumed before they fully formed.
Using the onboard gravity science instrument of nasa Juno probe, scientists set out to determine the structure of Jupiter, Juno, named after the Roman goddess of the same name who was married to the Roman god Jupiter, entered Jupiter’s orbit in 2016 and used radio waves to measure the gravitational field around the planet.
Scientists have used instruments to determine that the metallic elements found in Jupiter, which have a total mass of 11 to 30 times the mass of Earth. Earth, were buried deep inside the planet. The metals were closer to Jupiter’s center than the outer layers.
“There are two mechanisms for obtaining metals during the formation of a gas giant like Jupiter: through the accumulation of smaller pebbles or larger planets,” Told Yamila Miguel, lead author of the study titled “The Inhuman Envelope of Jupiter” published In Journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“We know that once a baby planet gets big enough, it begins to churn out pebbles. The richness of metals inside Jupiter that we see now is impossible to achieve before. That’s why we see Jupiter.” Can exclude landscapes with only pebbles as solid during formation. Planetimals are too large not to be blocked, so they may have played a role.”
Planetimals are solid objects in space that are formed from grains of cosmic dust. Once they increase in size to about a kilometer, these planets are able to use their gravitational field to grow larger – into protoplanets.
“Our results suggest that Jupiter continued to accumulate massive amounts of heavy elements while its hydrogen-helium envelope was expanding, contrary to predictions in its simplest incarnation based on pebble-separation mass, planet-based or more In favor of the complex hybrid model,” Miguel said.